SUMMARYFor thousands of years horses have been at people's side. They have been used for transportation at war, to save time, manpower and money. For practical reason, man has forced the horses into narrow spaces. Stabling includes factors as feeding and bedding. In the boxes the bedding materials must be kept clean and maintain good hygiene.

The margin in crop production is more and more less and it forces the producer to check out how to reduce the cost of establishment of new crop. One way to reduce the cost in establishment is to begin with plough less farming. It saves money and time compares to conventional soil preparation with plough and harrow. Not all soil types are god for plough less farming and should be continued with ploughing (mainly light soil), but other soil types working very well with plough free farming. If you want to success with plough less farming you have to think in new lanes. One of the things you have to think about is to not grow too much cereal after cereal. Low stubble is important when you harvest the crop and also to spread and chop the straw well. I have in this work interviewed some farmers and farm advisers in Östergötland to see which thoughts they have about plough less farming.

Agriculture has to be performed in a sustainable way in order to sustain high yields and to support a globally growing population. Functional soil properties are fundamental for high yields and in order to achieve good soil conditions sustainable management is a key. Loss of soil organic material and increased soil acidity are problems associated with degradation of soils and hence less sustainable agriculture. In this thesis, the effect of different agricultural systems on soil organic matter, pH and yield was examined. The systems examined are a cereal system with straw removal or returning and a ley system, all with different nitrogen levels.

A cattle producer that buys calves that are younger than six months to the herd should have a starter stable to prevent infection spreading in the herd. According to the Swedish animal welfare regulation there has to be a starter stable if more than 50 calves that are younger than four months are bought in yearly to the herd. The aim of the study was to improve the knowledge about bovine buildings and management of starter stables to obtain optimal weight gain and health of the calves. The hypothesis 1) The younger the calves are when purchased, the higher the calf mortality and 2) Purchasing calves from a high number of herds involves a higher risk of calf health problems and calf mortality were tested in the study. The objective of the study was to give advices by way of presenting ideal solutions of how a starter stable should be constructed and managed. A field study was done during June to September 2008 to collect knowledge and experience from existing starter stables.

This literature review examines different forages which are well suited for suckle cow production in Sweden today. They should also be possible to cultivate in Sweden under the current circumstances. Crops suitable for grazing in Swedish climate but not used in Sweden today, but which may be relevant for Swedish conditions are also mentioned. In Sweden today, mainly grass silage, straw and hay are used as forage, but also wholecrop silage is used to some extent. However, concentrates are not used to a greater extent, since it contains too much energy.

Cattle used for meat production can be held outside all year round and due to the legislation they should have access to shelters or other buildings for protection against the elements giving them a dry and clean bedding. There are different opinions concerning their need of protection and the question about necessity of shelters for cattle is of current interest due to a less profitable economy in meat production and the investment costs for shelters. The aim of this study was to acquire more knowledge about the natural behaviour of cattle concerning their use of shelters. The basis of the study was a series of questions regarding when animals choose to stay in shelters, if shelters were used less when they had access to protecting vegetation, how temperature and weather conditions affected the use of shelters and the influence of distance between shelter and feed. Behavioural studies was conducted at five different farms where six groups of suckler cows and heifers of following breeds and crossbreeds were observed; Aberdeen Angus, Charolais, Hereford, Scottish Highland Cattle, Simmental and the Swedish breeds SKB and SRB.

To reconstruct a building is a long-term investment for farmers and it is important that people with different qualifications are involved at an early stage for making the system adapted to the animals as well the animal keeper. Therefore, ethologists who can contribute with their expertise are needed to design the system and get it to function well for the animals.A Swedish farmer who planned to rebuild her stall for tied dairy cattle to a loose-housing system for recruitment heifers for milk production asked me as an ethologist to find a system which can be fit to her existing tie-stall barn for 30 dairy cows, considering the animal needs in terms of movement, social interactions and play behaviors, and to theoretically compare the system with other systems with respect to the behaviors mentioned.The theoretical comparison between different systems was made through a scientific literature review.In agreement with the animal keeper I set out to fit a system with feeding cubicles, a system with cubicles and a system with deep Straw bedding to the barn. After measurements were taken and preliminary drawings were outlined it was found that only the feeding cubicle system was possible to fit to the barn.The space provided will limit the animals to perform some playing behaviors. To decrease aggressive interactions between animals even thought a limiting area it is possible to provide partitions between resources animals compete around to prevent that more than one animal can get success to the resource at a particular place at one time. To increase the animal movement in the system the water trays were moved to the outer wall instead of kept in contact with the stalls.Although this report provides guidelines for rebuilding, other competences regarding building construction and a pre-test of the suggested building solution according to Swedish legislation are needed before the rebuilding can start.The results are directed mainly to the owner of the barn, but the literature review can be used by other cattle farmers and might bring increased understanding of the possible effects of different building solution on the animals..

The purpose of this literature review was from dairy cows? behaviour and welfare point ofview describe how feed bunk and cubicles in a loose house system should be designed. Todaydairy cows in Sweden and in the world have high demands because of a high milk production,stress and higher risk of being afflicted with diseases. Through selection in breeding the bestquality can be performed, but high demands of the environment for the dairy cow is above allalso important for a good welfare and for a good milk production. Feed bunks and cubiclesare just some parts to be designed in the best way for a good animal welfare.

The background of this study is the fact that it nowadays is more common to grow wheat after wheat. Usually we plow every autumn to remove the straw, and we wanted to study the effect of alternative methods to do it. We have done this experiment to answer the question if no tillage is better than conventional plowing. The results of the field experiment indicate that there is a link between plant establishment and the choice of equipment, but also a higher weed pressure in experimental plots with only ground tillage. The equipments which left much straw on the top of the ground the problems with fungi were more severe.

Fuel produced from renewable resources is of big interest. In this project the difference between a few different renewable materials are compared on the matter of environmental load when ethanol is produced. The renewable materials that are compared are Salix, straw and reed canary-grass (rörflen). The cellulose in the material is cut down to small pieces and then hydrolysed so that the sugar from the cellulose can be fermented into ethanol. Tha amount of ethanols that is studied in this work is the smount of ethanol needed to cultivate 1000 ha. The functional unit in the report is 1000 ha.

This study investigates a farm in Dalarna which includes 16 ha of farmland and 1, 7 ha of pasture. The purpose is to find out if it is possible to start an animal production in Dalarna. The study is set only to compare spring lamb production with nurse cow production. There are two buildings on the farm that can be used for this purpose. One is an old cowshed, and the other is an unused silo for silage with a roof on top. Both of the buildings are compared to every alternative in the calculations.

To achieve the requirements to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases by 20 % by 2020, Swedenneeds to increase its use of bioenergy. In doing so it seems natural that those who already haveaccess to large amounts of biofuels in the form of by-products such as straw, wood chips anddigestible materials take advantage of these assets locally. By combining production of heat withpower production at the farm it may be possible to not only reduce the direct use of fossil fuel forheating but also reduce energy costs.The purpose was to simulate different cases of using a small scale biofueled combined heat andpower plant for farm-based systems. A MatLab-model was developed and used to draw conclusionsabout the costs for production of heat and electricity with different conversion technologies.The model uses climate data to simulate the variations in heat energy demand on a day-to-day basis.The given heat demand is the base of the simulation and from this the possible electric output iscalculated. This study has focused on the impact of the following properties: electric-, heat- andtotal efficiency, fuel, fuel price and specific fuel requirements.

At present indoor tethering of dairy cows is still common but is not predicted to take part of modern dairy production. When conducting scientific studies of cattle it is generally necessary to tether the animals to maintain a controlled environment. Studies confirm that tethering and confinements of cattle severely affects the development of stereotypies in cattle. The feeding regime and feeding level have an immense affect on the stereotypi level in cattle. The aim of this experiment was to study dairy heifers that had never been tethered before the start of the experiment, to evaluate the affect of tethering on the development of stereotypies and the impact of the feeding regime on the behavior of the animals. Sixteen dairy heifers were tethered in a tie stall and divided in two groups with different treatments. Heifers in treatment E were fed restrictedly with silage and treatment EH was fed with the same amount of silage but also straw ad libitum.

This study will analyze and interpret the performance art piece The Last Strawcreated by the artist group High Heel Sisters. The aim is to search for potentialfeminist strategies in their deconstructive ways of incarnating gender and bodiesusing the notion of performativity and phenomenological theories.My study shows that the diversity of this art performance creates a complex platformwere discussions about gendered corporeality and spatial power relations are beingnegotiated..

To be a farmer and have suckler cows is a difficult combination especially considering the economy. Because of the increased feed costs, the margins have become tighter. The meat price from beef cattle has increased a little when this text is written (spring, 2008), but not so much that it covers the cost for feed etc. I have a small suckler cow production on approximately 30 cows and 2 bulls plus followers as a part-time business. The herd is tied in the old dairy stable built in the late seventies.